Horned lizards use their horns to defend against predatory b

Horned lizards use their horns to defend against predatory birds. A researcher observed that lizards living in areas with predatory birds have longer horns than those in areas with no predatory birds. This observation led her to hypothesize that longer horns offer more protection against predation than do shorter horns. To test this hypothesis, the researcher tagged 20 lizards with long horns and 20 lizards with short horns in each of two locations: Desert Valley, where there are no predatory birds, and Cactus Corner, where there are predatory birds. She returned every week for 12 weeks to measure survival of tagged lizards. The graphs below represent her findings.

What can you conclude from the researcher\'s results?

(a) The hypothesis that longer horns offer greater protection against predation is supported.

(b) The hypothesis that longer horns offer greater protection against predation is NOT supported.

(c) The experiment is well designed, but the results are inconclusive about the hypothesis.

(d) The experiment is not well designed to test the hypothesis.

I was debating between b and c but I am not sure.

Q6.10. Horned lizards use their horns to defend against predatory birds. A researcher observed that lizards living in areas with predatory birds have longer horns than those in areas with no predatory birds. This observation led her to hypothesize that longer horns offer more protection against predation than do shorter horns. To test this hypothesis, the researcher tagged 20 lizards with long horns and 20 lizards with short horns in each of two locations: Desert Valley, where there are no predatory birds, and Cactus Corner, where there are predatory birds. She returned every week for 12 weeks to measure survival of tagged lizards. The graphs below represent her findings. What can you conclude from the researcher\'s results? Cactus Corner Desert Valley Short horns 20 20 O Long horns Weeks Weeks The hypothesis that longer horns offer greater protection against predation is supported. The hypothesis that longer horns offer greater protection against predation is NOT supported The experiment is well designed, but the results are inconclusive about the hypothesis. The experiment is not well designed to test the hypothesis.

Solution

(b) The hypothesis that longer horns offer greater protection against predation is NOT supported.

Here there is no lapse the way the experiment was conducted and the experimental results clearly indicated that longer horns did not offer greater protection against predation. I did not found any kind of inconclusiveness the way results have been given given. So, we can rule out the option C.